Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet feeding apparatus for feeding sheets, and an image forming apparatus equipped with the sheet feeding apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
In general, image forming apparatuses such as printers are configured to feed sheets stored in a cassette though use of a pickup roller, and form images on the fed sheets by image forming units. Hitherto, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H06-286886, a sheet feeder has a side guide plate for regulating a position of a sheet stored in a cassette with respect to a width direction orthogonal to a sheet feeding direction. The sheet feeder is arranged such that a pickup roller is positioned in an obliquely inclined position with respect to the sheet conveyance direction, which is a direction of extension of a conveyance path, and the pickup roller is used to feed the sheets following the side guide plate. Thereby, the sheet is aligned against the side guide plate, by which skewing of the sheet is reduced. Further, as illustrated for example in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2017-114638, a sheet conveyance apparatus including a load member arranged between a sheet regulation member and a sheet conveyance unit and applying load to the sheet is known.
However, the pickup roller disclosed in above-described Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H06-286886 conveys the sheet obliquely with respect to the sheet conveyance direction, and it must realize the functions of feeding the sheet and pressing the sheet against the side guide plate. Therefore, the pickup roller had a drawback in that it cannot correspond to feeding sheets having a wide variety of grammage or sizes.
Moreover, according to the configuration of the sheet conveyance apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2017-114638, during conveyance of the sheet by the sheet conveyance unit, the sheet may be damaged by shear deformation that occurs between the sheet conveyance unit and the load member during conveyance of the sheet.